Aycock headed to final four

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 23, 2015 10:35 PM

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By RUDY COGGINS

rcoggins@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Fike had Charles B. Aycock on the ropes in the top of the fifth inning Friday evening.

One out.

Bases loaded.

Golden Falcons head coach Charles Davis slowly walked to the mound, called catcher Braxton Leeper to join him and had a brief conversation with pitcher Jacob Naughton.

"He said you can get out of this thing in one pitch," said Naughton, who received an error-less performance from his defense. "I threw the next pitch like I was supposed to and you saw what happened."

Naughton induced a ground ball to Trent Herndon at shortstop, who threw to Hank Smitherman for the out at second base and Smitherman completed the 6-4-3 double play with a perfect relay to first baseman Kyle Davis.

The DP sucked any life remaining out of the already-deflated Golden Demons. And Aycock, for the second time since 2012, advanced to the eastern regional championship series with a 10-0 mercy-rule triumph at Charles Davis Field.

The sixth-seeded Golden Falcons (21-4 overall) open their best-of-three regional finals at home Wednesday against Lee County. First pitch is 7 p.m.

"After Topsail, we talked about the itsy-bitsy things like not getting bunts down, key things with base running ... (the) mental (mistakes)," said Herndon, who batted 2-for-3 with two RBI -- and drove in the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the second inning.

Aycock came out swinging.

After a double play ended the Golden Falcons' first inning, they strung together three singles in the second. Herndon plated Lloyd Lowe, Naughton's courtesy runner, with a single that dropped in shallow right field.

Herndon just followed advice from assistant coach Randy Pate, who left him a note earlier in the day. The note mentioned fundamentals and "have fun" in big letters at the bottom.

"That helped me relax," Herndon said.

Naughton continued to keep the seventh-seeded Golden Demons (17-8) off balance and got some much-needed breathing room in the bottom half of the third inning.

The Golden Falcons manufactured five runs on three hits, a walk, a hit batsman, two infield errors, a passed ball and wild pitch. Herndon, Naughton and Bobby Hampton each collected an RBI as Aycock built a 6-0 lead.

"For us, it solidified (the game). Let's get it done in five because you don't see that a lot in the state tournament -- run-rule another team," Herndon said. "Fike is a good team, don't get me wrong, but everybody was on ... a team game."

Naughton added a three-run home run -- his first of the season -- in the fourth inning. Hampton's walk-off sac fly in the bottom of the fifth capped the mercy-rule win, the program's first in postseason play since a 10-0 decision over Northern Nash in game 3 of the 2007 eastern regional finals.

"This game happens fast and I thought they came out very fast," said Fike head coach Buck Edmondson, who used three pitchers in the game, including bring ace Brandon Winstead to the bump in the third inning.

"They swung the bats very good, found some holes early, were able to manufacture some runs and then they really started pinging it. I think a lot of this (Aycock) program and this area. I wish the the best of luck to them here on out. I hate for our season to go out like that because it rarely happens to us."